Collapsible portable stove



Jan. 28, 1958 Filed Sept. 13, 1955 s. c. PEPLIN' 2,821,186

COLLAPSIBLE; PORTABLE STOVE 3 Sheets-Sheet l INVENTOR. STEPHEN C. PEPLRN ATTOEY Jan. 2 1953 s, g, PEPUN I 2,821,186

COLLAPSIBLE PORTABLE STOVE Filed Sept. 13, 1955 3 Sheets-Sheet 2 v INVENTOR. STEPHEN C. PEPLBN Jan. 28, 11% s. c. PEPLIN 9 L COLLAPSIBLE PORTABLE STOVE- Filed se a. 15, 1955 s Sheets-Sheet 3 IN VEN TOR. 3A STEPHEN c. PEPLIN :4 BY

33 q 1 z 8 i A OREY United States Patent F COLLAPSIBLE PORTABLE STOVE Stephen C. Peplin, Lakewood, Ohio, assignor to Lakewood Manufacturing Company, Westlake, Ohio, a corporation of Ohio Application September 13, 1955, Serial No. 534,094

1 Claim. (Cl. 126-9) This invention relates in general to collapsible portable stoves and is a continuation-in-part of my invention disclosed in my co-pending application, Serial No. 528,224 for Portable Stove, filed August 15, 1955, now Patent No. 2,774,345.

The fabrication and assembly of the portable stove disclosed in the aforesaid application, and also herein, avoids the necessity of the conventional hinged joints, welding or soldering and the like. I merely take a length of fiat material, such as high heat resistant sheet metal. The middle portion of the sheet eventuates into the base and the other portions of the end walls of the fire basket. At spaced points near the side edges of the sheet I punch the metal inwardly to form ears. Also, in the end walls I punch the metal outwardly to form clips to engage the supporting legs. I then form side flanges on the strip of metal and bend it to form the base and end walls. With the ears in the base and side walls being adjacent the side flanges, I may slide the two open mesh side walls between the two and crimp a top channel rim to complete the fabrication and assembly of the fire basket.

The two main supporting legs are preferably spring wire loops, to'the open upper ends of which are rigidly secured transverse brackets. The legs and the center portions of the brackets easily snap into engagement with the clips punched out of the end walls. When the main legs are supporting the fire basket in vertical position, the two brackets are available for slidably supporting a pair of broiler frames and the top rim of the fire basket is available for supporting cooking utensils. When it is desired to dismantle the stove, the reverse procedure is employed in removing the supporting legs and broiler frames from the fire basket.

With this environment and background in view, my present invention has for its primary object to provide a new and novel means and method, by means of which I am able, by the use of a simple retainer clip, to so insert the supporting legs and broiler frames within the fire basket and to use their protruding ends as carrying handles so that the thus collapsed and packed assembly forms, virtually in itself, a handy and convenient easily portable carrying kit.

More specifically, I propose to first insert the supporting legs into the fire box with the rigid broiler frame supporting brackets resting on the floor of the base of the fire basket, and lengthwise thereof, with the loop ends of the supporting legs protruding through the upper opening of the fire basket. Next I insert the broiler frames in the fire box to rest on the supporting leg brackets with the broiler frame handles protruding through the upper opening of the fire basket and to a level higher than the loop ends of the supporting legs.

This leaves all of the component parts of the stove, namely the supporting legs, the broiler frames and their supporting brackets housed within the remaining component part, namely the fire basket. The only additional member that I employ is a readily insertable and re- Patented Jan.v 28, 1958 movable clip to anchor the broiler frames 'in place.

This also anchors the supporting legs in place because the broiler frames are resting on the brackets of the supporting legs. Such a retaining clip may take the form of a clip that may be easily secured to and removed from the fire box and apertured to permit the supporting legs and broiler frame handles to extend therethrough. With the assembly thus arranged, the handles of the broiler frames form a convenient hand engageable carrying handle for the stove thus dismantled to comprise a self-contained portable carrying kit in and of itself.

With the foregoing and other objects in view, the invention resides in the new and novel combination of parts, the details of construction and the method of assembly and disassembly set forth in the following specification and appended claim, certain embodiments thereof being illustrated in the accompanying drawings, in which:

Figure 1 is a view in perspective of the portable stove assembled to be supported in a vertical position for use as a portable stove;

Figure 2 is a view in perspective of portable stove dismantled and disassembled, the supporting legs de posited in the fire basket to rest on its bottom floor, the broiler frames also inserted in the fire basket to rest on the brackets of the legs and the removable clip secured to the fire basket to rest on the upper edges of the broiler frames to retain the assembled legs and frames in the fire basket, leaving the broiler frame handles extending upwardly through the fire basket and clip for hand engagement for use as a carrying handle for the dismantled stove;

Figure 3 is an enlarged view in perspective of the retainer clip removably securable to the fire basket for retaining the supporting legs and broiler frames assembled inside of the fire basket;

Figure 4 is a fragmentary side elevational view of the upper portion of the fire basket with the legs and broiler frames inserted therein, with the retainer slipped over the top ends of the legs and broiler frames preparatory to the retainer clip being removably secured to the fire basket;

Figure 5 is a view generally similar to Figure 4 with the retainer clip assembled and the broiler frame handles hand-engaged as carrying elements for the dismantled stove as a carrying kit; and

Figure 6 is a view in section taken along line 66 of Figure 5, showing the retainer clip and its attachment to the fire basket in further detail.

The main essential component of my portable stove is the fire basket itself, which I generally indicate at A. In the interest of economy in material and labor in fabrication and assembly, I take a continuous strip of light weight heat resistant sheet metal and bend up side flanges 1, 2 and 3 on each side of the strip. Having done this I slit the side flanges at points 4 and 5. Then I bend the strip at two points adjacent the slits 4 and 5 at right angles so as to form a channel base 6 and two channel end walls 7 and 8.

Prior to this bending operation I also punch out a pair of louvres 9 and 10 in the bottom wall 6 and two pairs of louvres in each of the end walls 7 and 8, these louvres being shown at 11 in end wall 7 in Figure l, the louvres in end wall 8 being in identical form as those shown at 11.

In addition, in each end wall I punch out of the metal of the end wall a pair of louvres 12 so as to form an open retaining clip that extends transversely of each end wall. Near the top of each end wall I punch out of the metal of the end wall a pair of horizontally spaced louvres 13, which provide for vertically downwardly extending open clips. With the two end walls andthe bottom wall of 3 the fire basket thus formed in the manner described I insert through the open top of the tire basket a pair of horizontally spaced screen members 14 and 14', which form the open mesh side walls of the fire basket. When each, screen member is inserted it is forced vertically downwardly in such a manner as to be positioned between each side flange of the base 6 and the two end walls 7 and 8 and the clips formed by the punched out louvre of the base and the two end walls just described. In this manner the base and the two end walls are of one integral piece of sheet metal. and the fabrication and assembly involves no hinge members nor necessity of any soldering or welding operation. The same thing is true in the fabrication and assembly of the two wire mesh side walls. With the assembly thus far progressed I take two channel strips 15 and 15, invert them and slip them over the top edges of the two wire mesh side walls and overthe side flanges of the two end walls and crimp the two inverted channel strips onto the flanges of the end walls to complete the assembly of the fire basket itself.

In order to properly support the fire basket into either vertical position, as shown in Figure l, I form a pair of legs, one of which is shown generally at 16 and the other at 17. Each leg is formed of a loop that affords two round engaging portions 18 and 19 and two vertically extending portions 20 and 21, which are of the same piece and integral with the remainder of the loop. Rigid with the leg standards 20 and 21 is a crossbar generally indicated at 22 which is bent at 23 to engage the corresponding end wall and which extends at right angles to the plane of the surface of the wire mesh side walls as legs 24 and 25. These legs 24 and 25 form brackets for slidably receiving broiler frames 26 of the conventional type in such a manner that they may be slidably moved toward and away from the external surfaces of the two wire mesh side walls for the purpose of moving the food contained in the broiler frames toward or away from the heat of the fire in the fire basket itself.

In order to assemble the supporting legs it is only necessary to first insert the center crossbar portion 27 of the bracket 22 upwardly under the clips of the louvre 13. The next operation while holding the supporting legs in position is to slip the two supporting leg standards 20 and 21 into such a position as to be engaged by the clips of louvres 12, as shown in Figure 1. This procedure having been followed in connection with both supporting legs 16 and 17 the portable stove is in readiness for operation, including the deposit and igniting of the fuel in the fire basket and the positioning of the food-coutaining broiler frames while the assembly is in the position indicated in Figure l for vertical broiling. It is to be understood that in addition to the suspension of one or both of the broiler frames on the brackets 22 on both sides of the fire basket there is ample space on the top of the two top channel frames 15 and 15 for food or beverage-containing pots and pans.

It is to be borne in mind that both of the fire basket supporting legs and the broiler frame supporting brackets comprise an integral construction in that the brackets are rigid with the supporting legs. Thus when the legs are installed in supporting position for the fire basket the broiler frame supporting brackets are also installed and the same thing is true with respect to removal of the supporting legs and the brackets as single units.

Specifically, in order to dismantle the stove of Figure l, the broiler frames 26 are first removed from brackets 24 and 25. Next, the vertical legs 16 and 17 are sprung outwardly out of engagement with louvres 12 of the fire basket end walls 7 and 8. After this, the cross bars 27 are moved downwardly out of engagement with louvres 13-of the fire box end walls 7 and 8. This leaves the stove dismantled to the extent that the supporting legs,

. 4 V V the broiler frames and their supporting brackets are removed from the fire basket.

I want not only the assembled stove to be portable, but also to provide a new and novel means and method whereby, for convenient transportation, the fire basket may comprise the packing case and that the accessories comprise the carrying handles of a convenient and portable kit.

Accordingly, I propose to first insert the two supporting legs 16 and 17 into the fire basket in such a manner that the brackets 24 and 25 rest lengthwise on the bottom wall 6 of the fire basket and that the loop ends 18 and 19 extend upwardly beyond the upper level of the fire basket, as shown in Figure 2. Next, I propose to insert the two broiler frames 26 in the fire basket in such a manner that the main frames rest on the brackets 24 and 25 and that their handles 34 and 35 extend upwardly through the upper opening of the fire basket. With merely this having been done, it is obvious that a manual lift upwardly on either the legs 16 and 17 or on the handles 34 or 35, would result in the manual removal of the legs or broiler frames from the fire basket. Therefore, in accordance with the stated object of my invention, and in addition to the above mentioned method of packing the legs and broiler frames in the fire basket, I preferably provide a retainer clip 30, as shown in Figure 3. This clip 30 has an elongated slot 31, two downwardly depending arms 33 and two sets of end tabs 32.

In Figure 4, I show the upper portion of the assembly of Figure 2. In addition, I show the retainer clip 30 so placed over the legs 16 and 17 and the broiler frame handles 34 and 35 that the legs and handles extend upwardly through the clip slot 31, preparatory to the removable securing of the clip to the fire basket.

As shown in Figure 5, further downward manual movement of the clip 30 brings its twodownwardly depending legs 33 into abutment with the upper edges of the two broiler frames 26. It also brings the two sets of tabs 32 of the clip 30 into alignment with the apertures 13A in the end walls 7 and 8 of the fire basket that resulted from the punching-out of the leg fastening louvres 13. With these two sets of tabs extended through openings 13A in the fire box end walls 7 and 8, the clip is removably secured to the fire basket and the clip arms 33 maintain the broiler frames in place. Inturn, the broiler frames maintain the supporting legs 16 and 17 in place. Thus, when the operators hand engages handles 35 of the broiler frames the entire assembly is conveniently lifted and transported. In substance, the fire basket becomes the package and the broiler frame handles 35 the carrying handle of the portable carrying kit for the dismantled portable stove.

I claim:

In combination with a collapsible portable stove includinga fire basket, a pair of supporting legs detachably attachable to said fire basket, 21 broiler frame having a handle, said legs having rigid therewith brackets for supporting said broiler frames, said fire basket comprising a carrying kit for said stove when said legs, brackets and broiler frame are disassembled and said legs are placed inside of said fire basket with their brackets resting on the bottom of said fire basket and said broiler frame is placed inside of said fire basket to rest on the brackets of said legs to prevent their independent removal from said fire basket, while the handle of said broiler frame extends outwardly beyond the confines of said fire basket, a clip having a slot therein to slip over the exposed supporting legs and handle of said broiler frame and provided with means for detachable-attachment to said fire basket and also provided with arms to bear downwardly on said broiler frame to thus prevent removal of said legs and broiler frame from said fire basket, while leaving the,

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS Nylund Feb. 23, 1915 6 Remington Apr. 17, 1934 Anderson July 28, 1936 Avetta May 21, 1940 Haislip May 20, 1952 Kahn Dec. 2, 1952 Peplin Dec. 18, 1956 

